Hi everyone,
If I were to move my bbs's host os to a 64bit version of windows, what are the options to keep running the old 16 bit game doors? Would this be easy or am I prodding a hornets nest?
Laters
Klunk :)

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Windows/32)
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Re: Move to 64bit os and door compatability
By: klunk to All on Sat Nov 15 2025 09:09 pm

If I were to move my bbs's host os to a 64bit version of windows, what are the options to keep running the old 16 bit game doors? Would this be easy or am I prodding a hornets nest?

There's a 'NTVDMx64' project which I've heard can get the 16-bit DOS VDM working in a 64-bit edition of Windows. I haven't gotten it fully working though, and I think it may be a bit finnicky, especially on Windows 11.

I eventually decided to move my BBS to a 64-bit Linux distro. 16-bit DOS doors run decently well with dosemu or dosemu2 (at least with Synchronet).

Nightfox
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If I were to move my bbs's host os to a 64bit version of windows, what

the options to keep running the old 16 bit game doors? Would this be

or am I prodding a hornets nest?

There's a 'NTVDMx64' project which I've heard can get the 16-bit DOS VDM working in a 64-bit edition of Windows. I haven't gotten it fully
working though, and I think it may be a bit finnicky, especially on Windows 11.

I eventually decided to move my BBS to a 64-bit Linux distro. 16-bit
DOS doors run decently well with dosemu or dosemu2 (at least with Synchronet).

I just moved my BBS from Win 11 to Linux. One of the issues was never being able to get the 'NTVDMx64' system to work. I'm currently working through the learning curve that comes with getting "dos emulators" up and running.

|11ogg
|11SysOp, Altair IV BBS
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Hey Ogg!

On Fri, Nov 15 2025 17:44:25 -0600, you wrote:

I just moved my BBS from Win 11 to Linux. One of the issues was
never being able to get the 'NTVDMx64' system to work. I'm
currently working through the learning curve that comes with getting
"dos emulators" up and running.

What's nice is that once you get the DOS emulator setup and one or two
doors working, you don't have to touch the emulator again. You can just continue setting up the door games the same way you did the first couple (obviously the door setups themselves may differ, of course).

Regards,
Nick

... Sarcasm, because beating people up is illegal.
--- SBBSecho 3.32-Linux
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What's nice is that once you get the DOS emulator setup and one or two doors working, you don't have to touch the emulator again. You can just continue setting up the door games the same way you did the first couple (obviously the door setups themselves may differ, of course).

I would get it setup and "think" things were done. Next update, and it wouldn't work again. Over multiple updates, I just got tired of it. It felt like microsoft was screwing with it so I finally said enough.

|11ogg
|11SysOp, Altair IV BBS
|11altairiv.ddns.net:2323

... Marriage is one of the chief causes of divorce

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A49 2024/05/29 (Linux/64)
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Hey ogg!

On Sun, Nov 16 2025 08:11:02 -0600, you wrote:

I would get it setup and "think" things were done. Next update, and
it wouldn't work again. Over multiple updates, I just got tired of
it. It felt like microsoft was screwing with it so I finally said
enough.

I was referring to whatever DOS emulator (dosemu/dosemu2) you may be trying to get used to on Linux. However, that very well may be the case with those, too. You have to keep an eye on what gets updated when new updates are pushed, or those have the chance of breaking, too.

When using something like dosemu/dosemu2 where a lot of old doors that don't ever get updated rely on to run, it may be better to compile it from source, so that you would have to manually update it (and really /don't/ have to if it works) and can check what was done prior to updating, rather than allow the package manager to do it when it is pushed upstream.

Regards,
Nick

... Sarcasm: because beating people up is illegal.
--- SBBSecho 3.32-Linux
* Origin: _thePharcyde telnet://bbs.pharcyde.org (Wisconsin) (21:1/700)

I eventually decided to move my BBS to a 64-bit Linux distro. 16-bit
DOS doors run decently well with dosemu or dosemu2 (at least with Synchronet).

I may need to pick at your knowledge if that's ok. I am comfortable using ubuntu and mint linux distros. Which distro do you use? I assume dosemu2 is a continuation of dosemu
L8rz
Klunk

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Windows/32)
* Origin: Who Dares Wins Amiga BBS (21:1/124)

Re: Re: Move to 64bit os and door compatability
By: klunk to Nightfox on Sun Nov 16 2025 05:22 pm

I eventually decided to move my BBS to a 64-bit Linux distro. 16-bit
DOS doors run decently well with dosemu or dosemu2 (at least with
Synchronet).

I may need to pick at your knowledge if that's ok. I am comfortable using ubuntu and mint linux distros. Which distro do you use? I assume dosemu2 is a continuation of dosemu

I'm using Linux Mint and dosemu2.

Nightfox
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